Leif Johan Sverdrup (January 11, 1898 – January 1976) was a Norwegian American civil engineer and military officer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He served during World War II as Chief Engineer under General Douglas MacArthur and in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1947 to 1958. He co-founded a civil engineering firm which designed and oversaw construction of many major U.S. projects, including the 17 mile-long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, nam...
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Leif Johan Sverdrup (January 11, 1898 – January 1976) was a Norwegian American civil engineer and military officer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He served during World War II as Chief Engineer under General Douglas MacArthur and in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1947 to 1958. He co-founded a civil engineering firm which designed and oversaw construction of many major U.S. projects, including the 17 mile-long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, named one of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World after its completion in 1964.
Leif Johan Sverdrup, better known by his nickname "Jack" , was born in Norway and was sent overseas to Minnesota by his father, arriving in New York City from Bergen, Norway on December 7, 1914. He served in the U.S. Army as a private during World War I. After the war, he earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota (1920).
In 1928, he joined with his college engineering professor John I. Parcel in the formation of Sverdrup &...
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